Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Help shes not starting!!!

Jumped on the speedy today hit the starter and not a thing happened, well not totally true.....The starter relay is operating its just not turning the starter.

I can get the bike going on a push start.


Battery is fine and the relay connector is fine.

Anyone any ideas?

Check your ground strap.

Also, look under thefront of the engine and make sure the starter cable connection is OK. There was a recall because some bikes had cable/oil cooler line contact that would ground the cable.

With the earthing in mind....it did look ok at my first glance....I followed the line back and found the solenoid which was getting 12V at one side without passing it over to the other.

A sharp tap with a minor adjustor did nothing, shorting the thing out with a pair of long nosed pliers started the bike as well as giving me a shower of sparks and a nice indent in one side of the pliers!

I'm off to the dealers with a burst soleniod in my sweaty paw tomorrow, whats the chances they will have one?

No I don't think so either.....got a big meet at the weekend too. Just as well I'm not off on the euro trip!

Thanks for your ideas guys, they gave me the inspiration to go and look further.

Don

Give Baxter Cycle or Palm Beach Triumph a call when looking for parts. Baxter you can get used ones off of salvage bikes, and Palm Beach for quick OEM parts.

OK heres an update for you all

I took the starter solenoid into my work today to test it properly, just to be sure.

Onto the bench power supply unit and well what do you know I get a big clunk as it activates. So I rigged up a 20A momentary switch and 12V battery combination so at least I know I will ba able to start the bike when I get home.

Back home first thing I checked was the voltage coming down from the starter relay (The two leads that go to the solenoid to activte it).
Well I have 12v on the leads when I thumb the starter button. I connected the whole lot back together and tried to start the bike, nothing happened. So its back to the voltmeter and checking the voltages. 0V at the solenoid connectors. I removed one lead and 12V appeared when I thumb the starter. If I could see the votlage dropping to maybe 1 or more volts I could understand this problem but its 0.00V on my meter!

At this stage I thought might as well try the jury rig I had made and without to much supprise it starts the bike fine.

This is where it gets really odd.

While the bike was running I noticed that the headlamp wasn't on, so I checked the fuses and yes the headlamp fuse has blown. I turned the bike off and replaced the fuse before pushing the bike back into the garage. As a last what the hell gesture I reconnected the bike to its original state and thumbed the starter...big rumbles erupt as it fires into life!!!!!!

Now it starts every time and I am at the can I trust it stage.

Oh boy do I hate intermitant or unexplaned fault recovery.

Hi Don,

Check the back of your headlight where the wire bundles enter and see if you have any chafing/cut insulation.

Definitely carry some extra fuses!!

For sure Phil

I'm begining to wonder if I have maybe trapped a wire the last time I had the tank off.

I've had the indicator fuse go recently as well.

If I was going on a trip, I'd sure pull the tank and check everything, just for piece of mind.

Careful, that indicator fuse is also the BRAKE LIGHT!! Bad design if you ask me!

This past week I had the following problem that sounds kind of like the problem you had. Last Sunday took the bike up to the local ATM to get some cash. When I got back on the bike after using the ATM I turned on the key, the counsel lights (oil & neutral)came on but the starter would not crank. I noticed the headlight wasn’t working either. I pushed the bike, jumped on it and popped the clutch and it started right up but the headlight still didn’t work. Drove it home and checked out the fuses and sure enough I’d blown a fuse. Put a new one in and the headlight worked and the starter worked also. Yesterday when I took the bike up for gas, the same thing happened. Blew the same fuse again. Did some checking on the circuit and found the cause was the kickstand switch. Some water had gotten into the switch and was causing the switch to ground out and blow the fuse. Needless to say I don’t have that switch on the bike anymore.